


The Stolen Operator

by remanth



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Golly, Lestrolly, Mollstrade, Molstrade, the stolen operator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 23:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5069248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remanth/pseuds/remanth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joining a book club and reading a true crime novel leads Molly to one of the best relationships she's ever had</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stolen Operator

On her breaks at work, Molly liked to read. The morgue was so quiet and still, the only other occupants being dead. She liked the quiet, it was one of the perks of her job, but sometimes it got to be a little much. Especially when she didn’t have something to distract her. So Molly read while she ate or on the breaks when the morgue was particularly slow.

A couple months ago, she’d even joined a book club. They called themselves London’s Dolls, which was cute and silly all at the same time. The women there, and one guy dragged by his girlfriend who decided to stay, were disparate people and Molly never felt like she didn’t belong. There were friendships, yes, but everyone was kind and open, never shutting anyone else out. The book they’d chosen to read this month was called _The Stolen Operator_ and Molly laughed when she saw it. It was right up her alley, being a true crime novel.

The case in the book was from several years back, before Molly had become a pathologist at St. Bart’s. Her mentor was the pathologist in the book and she giggled every time she read about him. Her memories were bright and filled with laughter. He’d been a sarcastic man but never cruel with it. He liked to make people laugh and make puns. Because of this, Molly had a bit of an insider’s look into the book that the others were curious about. Though, she’d asked everyone to wait on asking questions until everyone had finished the book. It was only fair that way; no spoilers.

She was so engrossed in her book on her lunchbreak that when Greg Lestrade knocked on the doorframe and called her name cheerfully, Molly jumped and let out a surprised squeak. She flushed immediately, setting the book down and smoothing her hair back behind her ears. Greg merely chuckled, looking a little apologetic for scaring her. Then he saw the title of the book she was reading.

“ _The Stolen Operator_ , huh?” Greg asked, chuckling again.

“Yeah, the book club I’m part of chose it,” Molly said self-consciously, thinking that he was laughing at her choice of books. “It’s surprisingly interesting, given the somewhat silly name. I like it.”

“Oh, I wasn’t laughing at the book,” Greg assured her, shaking his head. “I just remember the case. It was my first as a detective inspector and I was still the rookie. My partner had the lead on it and had me doing a lot of grunt work.”

“You were involved in the case?” Molly asked excitedly, leaning forward in her chair and completely forgetting the fact that Greg likely hadn’t come here to talk about old cases. “Can you tell me about it? I’d love to hear your side. My mentor was the pathologist on the case.”

“Sure, sure,” Greg replied, smiling widely at her. There was a somewhat self-satisfied and smug look in his eyes that disappeared so quickly Molly wasn’t quite sure she actually saw it. “Coffee later? I’m actually here on a case right now.”

Molly flushed again, stuttering a bit, and got up quickly. She headed out into the main area of the morgue while Greg talked her through what he wanted. There was only one new customer today, odd for London but Molly was enjoying the slowness. It gave her more time to read. After she discussed what she’d found during the autopsy and answered the questions Greg posed, they set a time to meet at a coffee shop nearby. Greg smiled and waved as he left, promising to see her later.

Molly headed back to her office with a dreamy smile on her face, unable and unwilling to make it go away. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t have even the slightest crush on Greg Lestrade. To be honest, she’d dressed up at the Christmas party last year partly for Sherlock and partly for Greg. And it was obvious she wasn’t going to get anywhere with Sherlock. He wasn’t the slightest bit interested. But Greg. Greg was a different story. At least, he seemed to be. There was interest there, if Molly was any judge, and he seemed excited for their meeting (don’t call it a date, don’t call it a date). She spent the rest of her shift floating and thinking about meeting Greg later.

After taking a quick shower and changing after work, Molly walked into the coffee shop a few minutes early. She’d been too nervous to wait any longer, wringing her hands and holding tightly to the bag she carried with her book inside it. She looked around the place quickly, more out of habit than of any belief Greg would be there yet. But there he was, sitting at a table in the corner. There were a couple files spread out on the table before him and Molly tried to figure out what they were as she wended her way towards him. 

“Hi,” she said, a touch breathlessly as she sat down.

“Hi,” Greg replied, smiling at her after staring speechless for just a few moments. Molly looked even more beautiful than usual, more like what she’d looked like at the Christmas party that Greg was thankful he’d been invited to as soon as she’d taken her coat off. “Nice to see you again.”

“You too,” Molly said then pointed at the files. “Taking work home?”

“Oh no, this is stuff from the case in the book,” Greg shook his head, spinning the pages around so that Molly could read them. “I pulled my copies of them out of storage. I kept them as I was the one making copies for everybody. Figured I’d have some of my own to look at too.”

As Molly paged through the files, Greg started explaining what he remembered of the case. It had started normally enough. A young woman found dead in an alley. Then things started turning weird. She’d been missing her lips and a red heart had been drawn in marker on her chest. Her wallet was still in her purse, placed next to her slack hand on the ground. She’d been an accountant for a large company and had been on her way up in society. Money was still in her wallet and a few expensive pieces of jewelry still adorned her ears and wrists so robbery was ruled out. The case went cold for a month and was relegated to a back burner. And then the second body showed up.

This time, it was a man in his mid-thirties. He was still wearing an expensive suit and his briefcase rested against his legs. The files inside and his identification showed that he was a lawyer, again on the rise in society. He’d taken on a high-profile case and won, making a name for himself. At first glance, nothing seemed to tie him to the previous woman. Except for the fact that his lips were missing and, once his body was taken in for an autopsy, another red heart drawn on his chest in marker.

“So it was serial then, right?” Molly asked, flipping to the page in her book describing the second victim. She’d been taking notes in the margins, small and neat words, though it needled her a little to write in a book. “That’s when your partner took over?”

“Yep, that’s when he was called in,” Greg confirmed, nodding. By now, they’d both ordered coffees and he took a sip of his. “I’d just been assigned as his partner the day before so to catch a case so quickly was exciting.”

“What happened then?” Molly asked.

“Well, we went through the usual background checks and looking for links and who might have wanted him dead,” Greg explained, gesturing at the files. “But it wasn’t until we talked to a buddy of his that we found a viable lead. Apparently, he’d been moonlighting as a phone sex operator. Which is where the title of the book came from, I’m guessing. He worked from home and all payments went to a P.O. box. It caught my partner’s interest and we went back to the friends of the first victim. Turned out, she’d been moonlighting too, using the same company and working from home. That’s how the killer had been finding them.”

Time passed seamlessly as they talked about the case. Laughter and wondering looks were traded as Greg talked about the other two victims and how they finally found the murderer. Turned out, setting up a police officer with a life like the previous victims worked. The murderer was one of the first callers. The other callers, however, were never recorded and the officer in question had threatened murder herself quite a few times before her colleagues let her forget. Molly’s stomach grumbled as one of the baristas came over to tell them that the shop was closing. They were the last patrons, the dregs of their coffees stone cold in the bottom of their paper cups.

“Thank you very much, Greg, for a lovely time,” Molly said, tucking her book back in her bag and helping gather up the files. “This was fun and definitely gave me a lot more to think about. There’s so much that wasn’t included in the book.”

“You are quite welcome, Molly,” Greg replied, feeling a curious opposition to letting Molly go just yet. “Seems late enough that we missed dinner and I’m starving. Would you like to grab a bite with me?”

“I would,” Molly said after a few moments, smiling widely. “Yes, that sounds perfect.”

As they left the coffee shop, Molly linked her arm through Greg’s as they walked. It felt comfortable and warm and she couldn’t help blushing a bit when he patted her hand and smiled. They walked in step, still talking and laughing, their hips and shoulders brushing companionably. Dinner turned into a nightcap at Molly’s flat which then turned into Greg staying the night which then turned into several more dates. And neither could fault the direction their relationship went, though Molly kept that to herself at the next book club meeting. Her friends there didn’t need to know that _The Stolen Operator_ had led to one of the best relationships she ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't sure what the common ship tag for them is so I tagged all the names I've seen floating around.


End file.
